Archive for July, 2005

‘British police used a robot to inspect a flat suspected of belonging to an alleged London subway bomber whom neighbours described as the “nice guy” next door.
Neighbors said they recognized the man from security camera images released by police of the suspect wanted for the attempted bombing of the Underground train in Shepherd’s Bush, west [...]

‘ Rick Schneider, president and CEO of FANUC Robotics America, Inc. will present “Save Your Factory” at the Management Briefing Seminar on Monday, August 1, in Traverse City, Mich. His discussion will highlight how North American manufacturers can improve their competitive positions and avoid moving manufacturing offshore.
According to Schneider, the latest paradigm is that in [...]

‘IRobot Corp., the Burlington company that has sold robot vacuum cleaners to millions of consumers, plans to go public, in a stock offering that seeks to raise $115 million.
”We’re the global leader in behavioral-based robots,“ said iRobot’s president, Helen Greiner, ”and we believe it’s the right time to take this company to the next level.”
The [...]

‘ASTRONAUTS on the shuttle Discovery last night activated a laser-equipped robot arm to inspect possible launch damage to their spacecraft.
In the seconds after launch, a small piece of thermal tile appeared to break off near the hatch containing the nose landing gear. Debris was also seen swirling around the fuel tank.
The astronauts — including Australian [...]

‘A chainsaw-wielding robotic submarine is roving beneath Lois Lake in British Columbia, Canada.
The submarine is chopping down a forest submerged decades ago when the valley flooded due to a hydroelectric dam. After it cuts the trees, they float to the surface, where they dry out and are sold to mills for use in furniture and [...]

‘The U.S. Air Force, largely for cultural reasons, has helped develop, and used successfully, a completely robotic aircraft. The FPASS (Force Protection Airborne Surveillance System) has been in use for over two years, mainly in Iraq, and has proved very successful. The seven pound mini-UAV is also called Desert Hawk. Battery powered, FPASS can stay [...]

‘After years’ arduous efforts, the research group led by Professor Sun Hanxu from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications have developed China’s first spherical robot to which the country enjoys intellectual property rights.
The robot, a project under the National Natural Science Foundation, has reached world advanced level and passed the appraisal by experts.
Beijing University, as [...]

‘There’s a new dog in town this week at the annual RoboCup championships in Japan. That’s where robots of various shapes and sizes compete in soccer games. The U.S. favorite is a team from Carnegie Mellon University, which took a battery-driven robotic dog sold by Sony Corp., fed its souped-up brain new software and turned [...]

‘Insect “extermination” may soon involve mini robots that can befriend and lure cockroaches from their dens.
Scientists in Lausanne, Switzerland, have successfully infiltrated a colony of roaches with a micro robot that has enough intricacies to interact with the world’s most resilient insect, according to a report published in the June issue of IEEE Robotics & [...]

‘They won”t be leaping tall buildings in a single bound, but Japan’s growing number of elderly may someday have a new lease on life that allows them to care for themselves — and maybe even pump a little iron. As the country’s population ages rapidly and its workforce shrinks, care workers may be hard to [...]

‘Walking away from the poker table with 100 large in your pocket is nothing special in Sin City. But until Thursday, the gambling capital had never seen a robot do it.
Last week, six programmers converged on Binion’s, the downtown casino that is the birthplace of the World Series of Poker, spurred by a winner-take-all prize [...]

‘Consumers have long been getting everything from cash to airline tickets from automated machines. Now add prescription drugs to the list.
Longs Drug Store Corp. will be the first Northern California retailer to install an ATM-style kiosk that dispenses drugs. Safeway Inc. has also received state approval for drug kiosks. Requests from Walgreens and White Cross [...]

Akihabara News has pictures from RoBoCup - a Robotic World Cup - check them out at Akihabara News:

‘But what is RoBoCup exactly? It’s a competition between small robots from a number of universities or manufacturers. There are two main themes: an obstacle course and a football game. The last one seemed to be the most [...]

‘The bright minds over at Fujitsu have rolled out an updated version of their HOAP (Humanoid for Open Architecture Platform) robot.
The HOAP-3 is a follow on to the HOAP-2 and HOAP-1, which was originally launched in 2001. After four years of development with Fujitsu’s Automation and Laboratory divisions, the latest robot can now process and [...]

‘Such robot-assisted exchanges are being repeated in dozens of hospitals across the country by doctors who use the machines to make their rounds, monitor intensive-care units, respond to emergency calls and consult with other physicians.
Proponents say this and other new “telemedicine” technologies are allowing doctors to use their time more efficiently and serve more patients, [...]